Royston Town boss Steve Castle believed his side were well worth getting a replay against Eastbourne Borough in the FA Trophy.

The Crows struggled in the first half against the National League South outfit, who had a few chances to find the net before they did. Matt Drage was first up, hitting the post before Crows keeper Josh Tibbetts had to be on his toes to tip away a Sergio Torres free kick.

Borough eventually took the lead after 35 minutes, though. Gavin McCallum was afforded far too much space on the edge of the area and was bought down, leading to a penalty. Drage then stuck it away to give them a 1-0 lead going into the break

Royston came out fighting in the second half though and won themselves a penalty, while the man who gave it away, Will Hendon, received his second yellow John Frendo’s penalty was saved though after 69 minutes though.

Two minutes later Cambridge United loanee Harry Darling went close while Castiglione fired wide after being slipped through by Frendo.

The goal did come five minutes from time, with James Potton smashing a volley beyond Mark Smith. He even had the chance to steal the victory in the last minute but edged his shot over the crossbar meaning a replay was needed.

And while Castle said that the draw was ultimately a fair result, he added that if they did score that penalty they could have kicked on to win it.

“I think that we were pretty poor in starting the game and then they got a penalty which wasn’t disputed, it was definitely a penalty,” he said.

“We were more disappointed by the amount of room they had to get into the area to win the penalty, but at the same time the conditions us in the first half. We pushed on in the second half we pushed on a little bit.

"We had a penalty ourselves and if we scored that and it was the equaliser than maybe we could have scored again a little bit earlier. But it was against a team in a league higher so to get back in the game and get a draw in fantastic.”

Royston will now face Eastbourne tomorrow night instead of their scheduled game with St Neots Town in the Southern Premier League, and Castle said that they won’t take anything for granted ahead of the clash.

“We won’t take anything for granted, we’re still going into the game as underdogs,” he said. “But if there’s any fear about the level of opposition, it should be gone.”

Meanwhile, the winners of the tie have been drawn away at Dover Athletic in the first round proper.